Verso will be joined by Afshin Matin-Asgari, Golnar Nikpour, Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, and Ervand Abrahamian for an urgent discussion this Tuesday, March 10, at 1pm EST / 6pm UK www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/... @versobooks.bsky.social #iran

‘The Islamic Republic is likely to emerge transformed or weakened in ways not yet visible. But the notion that it would simply dissolve under pressure was always fanciful.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on the US’s war on Iran, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Verso will be joined by Afshin Matin-Asgari, Golnar Nikpour, Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, and Ervand Abrahamian for an urgent discussion this Tuesday, March 10, at 1pm EST / 6pm UK www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/... @versobooks.bsky.social #iran

I've got a new article out @parlhistjournal.bsky.social 💥 It's about late 19thC socialist caravan tours & the production of everyday forms of cross-cultural connection & provincial internationalisms that were vital for the development of socialist ideas in this period

‘If Trump’s intention was to remove Khamenei from the political landscape, he may instead have fixed him in it, recast in the eyes of his devotees as a figure of sacrifice rather than failure.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on the US war on Iran, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

This is really excellent and informative, as ever. From the best @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social

‘Iran’s aim now seems to be not to secure immediate victory but to raise the cost of the war to prohibitive levels. It sees the conflict as existential. If regime change is the declared objective, then compromise is not an option.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

an important read

“The dry and wet burn together” The most astute and poetically beautiful contemplation on the US/Israeli war on Iran and the consequences of this to the people and region. All without making the usual hubris filled declarations about how it will EXACTLY play out. What we expect is pain and blood

The best thing I've read on Iran of late. Nuanced, insightful and beautifully written. "Wars of choice rarely confine themselves to their intended targets. They consume not only the combatants but the assumptions that animate them."

Best essay I have read on the war so far by @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

"The absence of justification is not incidental. It is a morbid symptom of an international system in crisis." I just sped ran @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social series on Iran on the @thedigradio.bsky.social and so incredible to have his thoughts on the current moment www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

‘If Trump’s intention was to remove Khamenei from the political landscape, he may instead have fixed him in it, recast in the eyes of his devotees as a figure of sacrifice rather than failure.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on the US war on Iran, new on the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

“a politics of gangster imperialism…” Excellent piece, thank you @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social

What began as an attempt to alter the regional balance may instead hasten the erosion of the order that presumed it could interfere with impunity. Great overview of the current moment by @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

"War alters political psychology in ways that are rarely linear ... What in peacetime appears as irreconcilable fracture can, under bombardment, assume the form of brittle solidarity."

"The absence of justification is not incidental. It is a morbid symptom of an intl system in crisis. The certainties of the US’ hegemonic stewardship of the intl rules-based order have been deformed beyond recognition by the Gaza genocide, but no alternative architecture has cohered in their place"

‘War alters political psychology in ways that are rarely linear. Those who loathe the clerical establishment may still recoil at the spectacle of foreign jets in Iranian skies.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on the US war on Iran, from the blog. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

One constant in this moment for Iran is that @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social is a must read. www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

“What began as an attempt to alter the regional balance may instead hasten the erosion of the order that presumed it could interfere with impunity”

“The certainties of the United States’ hegemonic stewardship of the ‘international rules-based order’ have been deformed beyond recognition by the Gaza genocide . . . there is a politics of gangster imperialism that has neither international nor domestic consent.”

"The premise of the war rests on a profound misreading of the Islamic Republic...Iran’s formative experience was the 8-year conflict with Iraq, when it was diplomatically isolated and militarily outgunned, yet survived through a combination of ideological mobilisation and asymmetrical adaptation."

My most recent piece on the @lrb.co.uk blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ma...

Strongly recommend reading this interview with @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social as a counter to so many brittle, binarised accounts circulating about Iran

I am pleased to share my recent interview with Counterfire on developments in Iran, conducted on 9 February. My thanks to Nariman Massoumi for the thoughtful questions. www.counterfire.org/article/iran...

Reminder: We are delighted to welcome Professor Behrooz Ghamari for an online book talk tomorrow at 4:00pm GMT at the University of St Andrews. All are very welcome to attend. events.st-andrews.ac.uk/events/book-...

‘The war led to the Revolutionary Guards becoming the country’s chief military institution, entrenched a siege mentality and habituated a generation of Iranian leaders to the logic of deterrence, endurance and asymmetric conflict.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on Iran. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I had the good fortune to join Afshin Matin-Asgari and Hamid Dabashi in conversation around Afshin’s new book Axis of Empire - a sharp, wide-ranging discussion on the long and entangled history of Iran–US relations. www.youtube.com/live/wPnHd8E...

‘While the political isolation of the Islamic Republic is in part a result of the regime’s miscalculations, internal repression and strategic blunders, the US has remained committed to a policy of containment and neutralisation.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on Iran: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

My latest interview with @jacobinmag.bsky.social on the recent uprising in Iran and the wider political context. I’ve tried to offer a measured assessment of the dynamics at play and the limits of easy answers. jacobin.com/2026/01/iran...

Discontent over dire economic conditions lay behind the protest wave that rocked Iran earlier this month. A US attack will make things even worse for the Iranian people, whether or not it results in the regime change Donald Trump would like to see.

My latest interview with @jacobinmag.bsky.social on the recent uprising in Iran and the wider political context. I’ve tried to offer a measured assessment of the dynamics at play and the limits of easy answers. jacobin.com/2026/01/iran...

‘Many Iranians blame their country’s isolation and economic immiseration on their leaders’ foreign policy decisions, which have long been decoupled from the people’s will and their democratic aspirations.’ Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi on Iran’s foreign policy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

My essay and review of Vali Nasr’s 'Iran’s Grand Strategy' is out in the London Review of Books. @lrb.co.uk

Issue 48.02 is now online, featuring: @adamshatz.bsky.social on visions of America @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on Iran Daisy Hay on Charles Fox and Edmund Burke Rosemary Hill on Jessica Mitford @alexclapp.bsky.social in the Amazon and Jonathan Rée on Alexandre Kojève. Read online at www.lrb.co.uk

‘The regime, worn down by prolonged economic warfare and austerity, has increasingly come to frame its role within the Axis of Resistance in nationalist rather than revolutionary terms.’ @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social on Iran’s foreign policy: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

My essay and review of Vali Nasr’s 'Iran’s Grand Strategy' is out in the London Review of Books. @lrb.co.uk

The best analysis of the 2026 uprising I’ve read so far. Appropriately & tragically bleak. “The danger is not sudden regime collapse, but a drawn-out descent into instability and, potentially, even balkanization.” Solidarity with the protesters, however bleak their political horizon.

We’re delighted that the School of International Relations, St Andrews is hosting Professor Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi (University of Toronto) for an online book talk on The Long War on Iran. 📅 Thurs 5 Feb, 16:00 (UK) To register: [email protected]

Read this 👇 brilliant analysis of the recent wave of protests in Iran. By far the most comprehensive and insightful overview that I’ve read so far.

Highly recommend — and it takes up many of the analytical frameworks and conjunctural analyses elaborated by @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social in @thedigradio.bsky.social’s 5 part history of modern Iran from 2022 thedigradio.com/History%20of...

The most thorough and politically astute piece I’ve read so far on the Iran protests, from @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social in NLR. newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

V good piece and wide overview of the protests in Iran and their prehistory from @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

My article on the latest uprising in Iran has just been published in @newleftreview.bsky.social: newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

thedigradio.com/History%20of... Good time for people who haven’t to listen to @thedigradio.bsky.social 5 part series on the political and social history of modern iran with @eskandarsadeghi.bsky.social and golnar nikpour

"With inflation eroding household purchasing power, domestic demand has also weakened: Persian rugs have practically disappeared from the homes of many families. Today, less than 3 per cent of carpets produced are used domestically, said industry experts." www.ft.com/content/824a...